Part 5

Later that night Liz was sitting up on her balcony, in her sweats, writing in her journal.

"Liz, you up there?" Max called out from down below. Liz stopped writing and smiled to herself.

"Yeah, come on up, Max!" Max quickly pulled himself up the ladder and over the wall to meet Liz.

"Hey." She greeted him.

"Hi."

"What happened to your dad’s birthday? I thought I wasn’t going to see you tonight!"

"Dad’s birthday? Oh, yeah. We finished early, and, well, I just couldn’t stay away." Liz blushed. "So are you still up for Chinese?"

Liz grinned. "Sure. If you want. Let me go get ready. I’ll meet you downstairs."

"Okay."

An hour later, Liz and Max were sitting and eating Chinese, laughing and talking to one another as though they were the only two people in the world.

Liz marveled at the way that Max always managed to treat her like she was really someone special, like a rare treasure that he was lucky to have in his possession. The only other person in the world who had ever made her feel that special had been her Grandma Claudia. Liz remembered back, sadly, to the day that her grandmother had died. Max had been so good to her that night. Liz knew, without a doubt, that she wouldn’t have gotten through Grandma Claudia’s death without that support from Max. It had meant the world to her. Max could never replace what Liz had lost when Claudia died, but he did manage to fill the void of emptiness that she had felt.

"What are you thinking about?" Max asked her, breaking the train of thought.

"Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you."

"Ditto." Max grinned back at her. "So…cookie time?"

"Cookie time." Liz agreed. "Your turn to go first."

"Okay…" Max cracked open his cookie. "To ease your pain you must find your way home." Max read quietly, his voice drifting off as he processed his fortune.

"What do you think that’s supposed to mean?" Liz asked him nervously. She didn’t like the sound of that. Home… Max’s REAL home was light years away. He didn’t even really know where it was. Would he ever be truly happy without finding his home?

"I’m sure it’s nothing." Max responded quietly. Home… Wasn’t his real home with Liz? But this place, this Roswell, wasn’t really his home. His home was in another Roswell, in another place. It was some other world on top of this one. But did he ever really want to go back there? There he’d have to live his life without Liz. His life was miserable there.

"Okay, my turn." Liz smiled. "When put to the test you must know your true love’s heart." Liz looked up at Max. "Well that’s easy. I know my true love’s heart. There’s no one for me except you."

"And my home is anywhere with you, Liz." Max assured her.

They smiled at each other, loosing themselves in each other’s eyes. As Liz gazed deep into her love’s eyes, she thought she saw a flicker of uncertainty. An uncertainty that Liz didn’t particularly like. Liz broke her gaze from his, and looked around nervously for a moment.

"Oh, hey, look! The pool table’s free. Come on, Max. I’ll kick your butt again!"

Max laughed. "Don’t be so sure about that Miss Parker!"

Liz was shocked when Max actually managed to give her some competition this time. The last time they had played he had been a lost cause, but suddenly he was sinking solids left and right!

Liz sneaked up behind Max and tickled him lightly as he took his next shot. Surprisingly he still managed to make it.

"Are you cheating?" Liz whispered playfully in his ear. "Now that’s just not fair, spaceboy."

Max grinned and leaned over, kissing Liz deeply.

Later that night, Max had walked Liz home, and they stood on her porch, kissing passionately.

"Max!" Liz groaned as he devoured her neck. "Oh…Max! I….uh….I have to." Liz threw her head back to give him more access to her neck. "Ohhh…Max! It’s getting late. I really have to go in."

"I know." Max whispered before hungrily attacking her lips again. His lips returned to her throat, and Liz gasped at the sensations flowing through her body.

"Why don’t you meet me upstairs?" Liz whispered.

Max tore his lips away from her and searched her eyes, making sure she really meant it.

"I’ll be up in a few minutes." Liz gestured towards the fire escape.

Max nodded and headed up to her balcony, silently unlocking her window with his powers, and crawling inside her bedroom.

A few minutes later Liz slipped in through the door.

"Hi. Everything okay?" Max asked softly.

"Yeah, I just had to convince them that I was going straight to bed."

"We could do that." Max grinned.

Liz smiled at him and grabbed her silk pajamas.

"I’m going to go change." Liz moved into her bathroom, leaving the door slightly ajar so that they could talk quietly.

Max glanced for a moment at her bed, and then back to the bathroom, before taking a seat on her bed.

"Liz, I just want to hold you all night. Would that be alright?" Liz blushed and grinned.

"I’ve missed that so much." He added quietly.

Liz’s head shot up at his words. Did she hear him right? But Max and her had never slept together, not even once. The only time anything like that had ever happened…Liz thought back to her time in the alternate Roswell. No. It just wasn’t a possibility. She had to have misheard him.

Liz finished buttoning up her pajama top, and then slipped back out to her room. Max stood up at the sight of her and smiled.

"You’re so beautiful, Liz." She smiled back at him, and ran her hand up his shoulder, and down the line of his collar to the buttons of his shirt.

"You’re not going to sleep in that, are you?" Liz grinned mischievously as she slowly began to unfasten the buttons one by one, each one revealing a little more of his strong, hard chest. Finally she opened his shirt up entirely, and reached her hands in, running her fingers up and down the ridges of his body.

"Max…" Liz whispered as she looked up into his dark eyes expectantly. He reached down and took her lips again, their tongues dancing as Max allowed Liz to slip his arms out of the sleeves, and discard his shirt somewhere on the floor.

They broke apart again, and Max reached down for the button of his jeans, slipping them off, so that he stood there just in his boxers. He sat down on the bed, and pulled Liz down with him, wrapping his arms around her as they slid beneath the sheets.

"God this feels so right." Max whispered as the two of them slipped away into the world of dreams.